zimfandomcom-20200222-history
Zim
Invader Zim is the titular character and antihero of the show of the same name.'' Zim is a member of the alien Irken race. Since his actions usually lead to disaster (For example, he nearly destroyed the Irken homeworld during Operation Impending Doom I) his leaders, the Almighty Tallest, banished him to Foodcourtia. While there, however, Zim heard of Operation Impending Doom II, and, obviously not understanding the purpose of his previous exile, "quit being banished", venturing to Conventia in the hopes of getting an assignment. Chagrined, the Almighty Tallest sent him on a "secret mission" to Earth (though they did not know much of the planet at the time), in order to keep him away from Operation Impending Doom II. After arriving on Earth, Zim enrolls in the nearest elementary skool to begin his infiltration and gather information. There, he becomes quick rivals with Dib, an avid preteen paranormal investigator. Zim wants to conquer the Earth, mostly to prove his superiority and impress his leaders. However, as mentioned by Gaz in the episode Gaz, Taster of Pork and Bloaty's Pizza Hog, "He's so bad at it." Although he is the protagonist of a children's show, Zim is, morally and ethically, a villain (though occasionally considered an antihero), being overall a fairly unsympathetic character, though he occasionally shows some kindness towards certain characters such as GIR in Walk of Doom, and usually only causing chaos and destruction for either himself, his own race, or Earth. Appearance Zim's appearance, like that of most of the Irken race, seems to be based off the typical "little green men from Outer Space" stereotype. Many Irkens are about the size of a elementary school child (with a few exceptions), but Zim is exceptionally short. In "The Nightmare Begins," Zim is shown as being even shorter than the notoriously short Invader Skoodge. Zim also has ruby-colored eyes - another common trait in Irkens. It's mentioned in "Walk of Doom" as well that Zim's eyes contain ocular implants ("Ocular implants are standard Invader issue"). Since the eyes he was born with aren't visibly different from subsequent appearances, it can be assumed that these implants are subcutaneous. He dresses like an Irken Invader would, since he assumes that he is one; a deep pink striped uniform with with a pink collar and black boots and gloves. However, In The Wettening, one of Zim's gloves developed several bumps after it came in contact with water. He also possesses a pair of antennae; their exact function is unknown, but they seem to function like human eyebrows; rising and lowering to convey emotion. It is strongly implied that they function like ears, and pick up vibrations in "Battle of the Planets." Personality Zim is, as previously noted, an Irken with megalomanical, sadistic, emotionally unstable, sociopathic, paranoid, and narcissistic tendencies. He usually ends up being a danger to himself and his own people, but he still considers himself a mighty Irken warrior. Jhonen Vasquez noted that Zim has a nanocomplex. Zim has Mysophobia, which developed when he ordered a pair of goggles that let him see germs and bacteria in Germs, and obsessively cleaned his house. However, he seems to have gotten over his fears. ]] Zim also frequently overreacts, as seen in "Future Dib" when an unknown person threw a muffin at him. He suspected that Dib was the culprit. At night, when Dib was asleep, he put him into a holographic room in his base, where Dib defeated Zim and the Irken empire and eventually grew old. In an interview, he is asked if he threw the muffin at Zim. When Dib says yes, the holograms disappear and Zim laughs in triumph, and then he forces Dib out. Before Dib can leave, Zim aims a humongous cannon at him, but all that comes out is a muffin. Despite his self-proclaimed greatness, Zim is held up as a complete laughingstock, a scapegoat, or a figure of contempt by his own species. Despite this, Zim is innocently loyal and obedient to the Tallest and his "mission" in Operation Impending Doom II, to the point where he is willing to endure pain and hardship in order to gain their respect. In "Planet Jackers," Zim even takes a severe beating in order to protect his mission and Irken interests. His self-absorbed nature prevents him from seeing his failures, be they in the past or present. He claims to be proud of all the past disasters he has caused, and rarely acknowledges his defeats in his present mission on Earth (often blaming them on other characters, other factors, or by completely changing the subject). When he is told by Tak in Tak: The Hideous New Girl, that his "mission" was really an attempt to get rid of him, he simply rejects her statement as a lie. It is not clear whether Zim is aware of his failings in the eyes of his leaders and is desperately trying to compensate for them, or whether he really is just completely oblivious to the opinions of others - the series is not consistent on this point. By turns this would-be Invader can be petulant, critical, paranoid, humorous, sarcastic, pretentious, pedantic, melodramatic, and even occasionally whimsical. He is often curiously attached to random objects, such as his robot bee and becomes immensely upset after it flies away (Tak: The Hideous New Girl). He is immensely proud of anything he creates, yet is often frustrated when his devices fail to live up to his grandiose expectations. It's clear that Zim is highly intelligent (in his own crafty sort of way) and is a keen manipulator of tools and devices, but has absolutely no apparent interest to think things through to their logical conclusion. The fact that creating and unleashing a giant water balloon on the city from orbit in The Wettening would also destroy his house doesn't seem to enter his mind, and when he hijacks the Massive in Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars, he only assumes (incorrectly) that the Tallest will be appreciative of his efforts. Additionally, he does not stop to consider the consequences of restoring the natural time-flow of a city-leveling explosion in Walk for Your Lives, despite being warned several times, by GIR, no less, until his base was coming down around him. An alternative explanation is that he is aware of the consequences of his actions, but believes that they are worth reaching his goals and is willing to amend them after he does so. Zim clearly is more than capable of destroying Earth, but he hardly ever uses this capability correctly. For instance, when he is accidentally sent a Megadoomer robot, he decides to use it in an attempt to kill Dib, when the robot obviously has the destructive power to do better things. He has often come very close to taking over the planet, only to be thwarted by Dib or occasionally Gaz. One of Zim's apparent abilites are his somewhat inconsistent skills at piloting; many episodes feature a dogfight or tense aerial situation, although just as many show Zim horrifically failing at piloting skills as well (i.e.: He often crashes into the roof of his house before landing perfectly on the airpad). Also, although superior in magnitude to the skills of enemies like Dib, Zim's piloting skills pale in comparison to enemies adept at hand-eye coordination or overall agility (such as Gaz or Tak). He also seems to have incredible engineering ability. In "Walk of Doom," he improves upon the SIR unit guidance system chip (although how GIR got one in the first place is unknown), and in "Walk for Your Lives," he single-handedly creates a variable time stasis field, capable of altering individual time-fields. Even though Zim often states that he wishes to enslave Earth, it seems unlikely that he would actually want to rule it. In "Attack of the Saucer Morons," Zim gains a group of humans who would be willing to do his bidding. Zim, however, panics and tries to escape from them, believing that they are trying to capture him for dissection and study. In the ''Nickelodeon Magazine Special, in which Zim finally takes over the world, he doesn't stay to rule for very long, instead leaving Earth forever (along with Dib, GIR and Minimoose) to ride alien bunny rabbits and drink soda. In an interview with Animation World Magazine, Jhonen Vasquez has confessed that the Irkens would really have no desire to enslave the humans, and would much more likely exterminate all Earthly life in order to use the space to build another parking structure planet. Zim shows no remorse for people that are harmed by his actions and almost never takes responsibility for his mistakes. He prides himself on causing destruction in the name of the Irken Empire, even when said destruction is aimed towards other Irkens (as Zim responded about his destruction of Irk, "... But I blew up more than all the other Invaders!" with Tallest Red responding "You BLEW UP all the other Invaders!" Zim replies with a dismissive "Oh, hmm!". More or less he considers everyone else but himself (even members of his own race) expendable for his goals, often exploiting them to reach his own goals with apparent disregard for their safety or well-being. For example, in Hobo 13, Zim sends the soldiers under his command to their dooms when other, safer methods could be taken (even using Throbulator, the last soldier in his unit, as a battering ram), causing Sergeant Hobo 678 to fail him automatically despite the fact that Zim manages to survive the obstacle course. Another example is when Zim destroys a candy machine in Tak: The Hideous New Girl, ending Tak's mission to become an Invader. Additionally, he fails to save her when she is trapped in the assessment room (although it is implied that he simply didn't notice her inside). Zim usually shows little to no affection, often claiming to "need no one", but he occasionally lets a softer side of him slip (probably by accident). In Parent Teacher Night, when Zim thinks back to when he was born, he remembers that the first thing he ever said was that he loved the "cold, unfeeling robot arm" which hatched him from his test tube and activated his PAK. This memory triggered him to sub-consciously hug Ms. Bitters in the same way that he hugged the arm when he was a smeet. In addition, while he frequently yells at GIR and orders him around, he seems to have taken a liking to the robot, even if he doesn't want to admit it. In the episode Walk of Doom, after seemingly reducing GIR to tears with a harsh reprimand (although GIR was only crying over the fact he ate his cupcake), Zim appears remorseful and quickly forgives the robot, also acknowledging that his feelings would not help them, stating "I can see that you understand your mistake, GIR, and me being angry will get us no closer to home". Additionally, in Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom, Zim expresses concern for him when he leaves him behind upon entering the Nightmare World. At times, Zim interacts with GIR like one would with a younger brother, which would reprimand him and get him out of trouble. This soft side is seen again in Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy, when GIR expresses a desire to play with the rubber toys, Zim initially refuses, as he intends to use them for his plot to destroy Dib. However, it takes nothing more than a tear shed by GIR to make Zim relent. If Zim realizes, even on a subconsious level, that he is defective, this might be due to some kinship felt with the similarly defective SIR unit. In the unaired episode Mopiness of Doom, it is made obvious that Zim also relies on the intereaction with his supposed mortal enemy Dib for motivation. He says in A Room with a Moose that his mission might not be as "exciting" without Dib around to "annoy him," and also seems to dwell on the big-headed human quite a bit, almost moreso than his actual mission. When Dib is removed, he loses all motivation to take over earth, or even leave the house. And when Dib returns, he apears overjoyed, saying "You're back to your old self? ... You don't know how happy that makes me!" before launching into their old enemy-style banter. Disguises worn in public In order to blend in with the inhabitants of Earth, Zim has made a series of creative disguises. Zim often wears disguises to attempt to conceal his identity from the "earth-monkeys" that he plans to eventually conquer; they are often unconvincing and hastily constructed, but he knows that the humans are too oblivious to recognize that he is an extraterrestrial visitor anyway. Zim's school disguise consists of some contact lenses and a bouffant wig. The contacts give his eyes a human appearance, and the wig covers his antennae; however, everything else about him, including his uniform and green skin, is left unchanged. He explains away his skin color and lack of ears as a skin condition in the ("The Nightmare Begins"), and has passed off being caught without his contact lenses as a bad case of pinkeye. It was discovered in the first episode that the sleeve of his right glove can become a self-destruct device, most likely to get rid of an Irken soldier if they believe their mission has been compromised. He occasionally wears an old man disguise in "Walk of Doom" and in other episodes, which he uses throughout the first season. This disguise consists of a flowered hat and a white fake beard. It makes him resemble a short, crazy old man, and in "Walk of Doom," he was mistaken for a hobo. In the second season of the show Zim adds another disguise to his arsenal: a floppy, huge-headed human suit with a cape, a sewed-on handbag and stuffed puppy, and a name tag reading 'human'. Other costumes worn include a fat lady outfit, used to hide the time field explosion ("Walk for Your Lives"), bear suit (use unknown, possibly an I Feel Sick reference) ("Battle of the Planets"), 'Baby Inspector' disguise for interrogating 'Noogums' ("Plague of Babies") and the Santa suit and Easter Platypus disguises used to manipulate the public in "The Most Horrible X-mas Ever." The Pilot also has an oversize robotic battle-suit shaped like Zim's school disguise for use in the food-fight that occurs. Briefly on-screen, appearances of other Invaders in "Walk for Your Lives" and "Planet Jackers," show that almost all the Invaders (a notable exception being Tak, who uses a clever hologram) are using even shoddier disguises, so Zim's ineptitude in this regard is not unique. Voice Actors Zim has had several voice actors. In Jhonen Vasquez's original pilot episode, Zim's voice was provided first by Mark Hamill and then by Billy West. Jhonen Vasquez has stated in the DVD commentaries that he felt casting West as Zim would have created a situation where there would be two comedy science fiction-based cartoons on the air at the same time with the same lead voice. The pilot episode with Billy West's voiceover track is available as an extra feature on the 2nd disk of the Zim DVD set. Richard Horvitz revoiced Zim as a tester on the third pass of the pilot and was finally chosen to be the character's permanent voice for the remainder of the American series. If the Angry Beavers had not ended by the time Invader Zim aired, Andy Berman, the voice of Dib, would've voiced Zim. This final version of the pilot is not currently available to the public in any form. Horvitz's style of voicing Zim is influenced heavily by Vasquez's own inflections, and those of the actor Vincent Price. Interestingly, Horvitz plays a similar character (Orthopox) in the video game Destroy All Humans!. On behind the voice actors, it is shown that Melissa Fahn had voiced Zim as a smeet in "Parent Teacher Night." But her only line as Zim was: "I love you, cold unfeeling robot arm". Facts of Doom 's failure]] * Zim could've been considered the first Nicktoon villain to have ever killed anyone had the show not been cancelled, since the unfinished episode "The Trial" confirms that he doomed two previous Irken leaders by accident; and, during a flashback in "The Frycook What Came From All That Space," it was shown that he blew up all the other Invaders at the beginning of Operation Impending Doom I. * Zim may have appeared in Vasquez's comic book Squee! before the start of the series. A poster with featuring an alien that looks Irken and is possibly Zim due to the fact it was wearing a wig like Zim's bouffant wig appears above Todd's bed. The image looks less like Zim, though, since the head is rounded and has mere stick figure hands. * Zim has been seen in a commercial on Nickelodeon holding a sandwich to which he has bad allergic reactions to unless it is an Irken sandwich. In it he was knocked off a wire on which he was sitting on and thrown into a light, making it explode. This commercial was a crossover of other series on Nickelodeon. After the cancellation of Invader ZIM, Zim was replaced with Jenny from My Life as a Teenage Robot. Jenny wasn't knocked into the light. * Zim is known to smell things and scents even though he does not have a nose, or his nostrils are so small that they're not visible, as evidenced in "Germs," when he is seen sniffing the scent saying it was the "stink of clean." *In Jhonen Vasquez's "Meanwhile..." comic "Jhonen Vasquez V.S The Devil", There are aliens flying a ship similar to Zim's Voot Cruiser, though the aliens inside the ship look nothing like Irkens. In one episode of FanBoy and Chum Chum called "Dollar Day," Zim can be seen on a comic cover in the background. His skin is faintly green and he's wearing his disguise, so one must be careful when looking for him. * At some point in the series, Zim had learned to read human writing, as he is seen reading the newspaper, and understanding what it says, in "Zim Eats Waffles." * Zim is able to whistle, as seen in "The Girl Who Cried Gnome," "The Nightmare Begins" and "The Wettening." *Zim's weaknesses have little consistency within the show. For example, in "The Wettening," it is made obvious that he gets burned by water, but in many other episodes he comes into contact with water and is just fine. See also * Complete Filmography * Almighty Tallest and Zim's Relationship * Zim and GIR's Relationship * Zim and Tak's Relationship * Zim and Dib's Relationship * Zim and Gaz's Relationship * Zim and Keef's Relationship * Zim's House * Zim's Space Station * Zim's Orbital Water Balloon * Zim:Screenshots Official Artwork File:Art_Zimhandsbehindback.png|Hands Behind Back File:Art_Zimpondering.png|Pondering File:Art_Zimyelling.png|Yelling File:Art_Zimplotting.png|Plotting Zim looking at you.jpg|Zim in an action pose. Smeet Zim newborn.JPG|Zim as a newborn smeet 10 year old Zim.jpg|10 year old Zim from The Trial Smeet Zim.png|Zim as a smeet. File:Art_Zimdisguisehandsbehindback.png|Hands Behind Back File:Art_Zimdisguisepondering.png|Pondering File:Art_Zimdisguiseyelling.png|Yelling File:Art_Zimdisguisecoverup.png|Cover Up File:Art_Zimdisguisepointing.png|Pointing References Category:Main Characters Category:Males Category:Irkens Category:Skool students Category:Exiles